


The Would-Be Mariner

by Zdenka



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen, Hobbits, Humor, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-27
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2018-03-09 07:11:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3240896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zdenka/pseuds/Zdenka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A young hobbit attempts to go to sea, with unfortunate results.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Would-Be Mariner

**Author's Note:**

> Written in the meter of "Eärendil was a mariner" from _The Fellowship of the Ring_ (with a certain amount of affectionate parody). I imagine this as the sort of story that was told in the Shire to discourage hobbits from seeking Adventures.
> 
> The lotr_community April 2014 challenge was to write a comic poem using an assigned pair of rhyming words (mine were "precarious/vicarious"). This was started then and finally finished for the January 2015 Potluck Challenge.

Young Perry was a hobbit lad who always had a clever wit;  
his friends and family thought him odd –- it did not bother him a bit.  
Of all he read, he loved the tales of white ships sailing on the sea,  
and long he dreamed beside the stream in thinking what a "wave" might be.

At last one night he slipped away; to havens grey he came at last  
and saw a ship at anchor ride upon the tide that softly splashed.  
While all the sailors soundly slept, aboard he crept and hid himself—  
Could not a hobbit do as well upon the swell as Man or Elf?

But once the ship had left the dock, its rocking brought alarm to him;  
the Men who seized him were displeased and even threatened harm to him.  
The sailors eyed him with dark looks and cried "Blast and bebother him!"  
He tried to stay out of the way, but still they often trod on him.

With wind and waves both soon and late, he found his state precarious;  
and, in a word, he much preferred when dangers were vicarious.  
The voyage ended, he was free of ships and sea and sails and Men;  
so grateful was he to be home, he never roamed abroad again!

**Author's Note:**

> havens grey: the Grey Havens or Mithlond (the closest port to the Shire)


End file.
